Singing in the Instrumental Music Classroom - Reflections

Educators and theorists have long advocated the use of singing, or more specifically, vocalization, as an instructional technique in instrumental music classrooms. These scholars contend that vocalization activities afford students unique ways of representing aural and notational stimuli and may aid in the comprehension and performance of instrumental music, especially for beginners.
While the first content standard of the National Standards for Music Education includes the statement that music students from kindergarten through grade 12 should have experiences singing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music, teachers of beginning instrumentalists often fail to use singing as an instructional technique in the classroom, and few instrumental method books even include it.
However, an overwhelming amount of research shows that vocalization may, indeed, have a positive effect on the training of instrumentalists. The findings of studies by Grutzmacher (1987), Lee (1996), MacKnight (1975), and McDonald (1987) indicate that vocalization using movable Do solfege syllables may have a positive impact on beginning instrumentalists, while Sheldon (1998) observed similar results with college students. Additionally, Davis (1981) and McGarry (1967) found that vocalization may be employed, to a high extent of effectiveness, with scale degree numbers and pitch letter names.
While this doesn't even touch the tip of the iceberg in terms of justifiable research for the advocacy of vocalization in instrumental music programs, I think it is important, as educators, to find the actual source of the absence of this instructional process. I think this most certainly has to do with the fact that for many band students, singing seems to be an unreasonable task because it is too far out of many of their comfort zones. If we force our students to make a leap that is beyond their level of comfort, we risk all sorts of behavioral problems and having the flow of our class disrupted. Our first reaction to something like this that doesn’t work is to get rid of it and try something else. However, perhaps all our students need is some kind of stepping stones that help them bridge the gap and become more comfortable with this highly beneficial practice.

SSM: Effectively Using Journals -Reflections

I found this chapter particularly interesting because I think journal writing can be an incredibly flexible instructional tool that is useful across the entire curriculum. While often used as a class startup activity, it can also be used primarily to give students an opportunity to speculate on paper and rest assured tthat their ideas, observations, emotions, and writing will be accepted without criticism. Even when I was with Glassmen, we used journals all of the time for both discussion-based activities and private, personal reflection, which allowed to to be much more self-aware of both the musical and social aspects of the experience itself.

Further, I think that curriculum-oriented journal entries have the advantage of causing students to relate personally to the topic before instruction actually begins. Asking for a summary of learning or for a question about something causes the student to process and organize his or her thoughts about the material covered - a great instructional device, particularly in the world of music education where a classroom with any activity other than rehearsal can be hard to find.

Chapter 8 Reflections- Assessment

As a whole, I think two significant assessment challenges face those who seek to bring quality music programs to students in the United States. We are first faced with the challenge of maintaining a balanced curriculum in an environment where dependence on large-scale, high stakes testing of students in a small range of programs (reading, math, and science) severely limits learning opportunities to those tested subject areas. In this regard, music educators, along with colleagues in other disciplines and officials at the U.S Department of Education, strongly believe that testing must be implemented in such a way as to improve the total school experience, rather than in a way that effectively narrows educational opportunities for students. Second of all, music educators face the challenge of using assessment in their own programs in order to inform theirteaching as well as benefit the students in their classroom.

Additionally, music educators have historically used multiple forms of assessment for their students, reported on students’ musical progress to parents, and implemented sophisticated systems for the evaluation of school performing ensembles to establish publicly accessible quality measures in certain aspects of their programs. However, I think that they face multiple unique challenges as they seek to expand their assessment work. For one, music teachers are often responsible for teaching and assessing large numbers of students, such as in ensemble classes or across a weeklong schedule of elementary general music students, in addition to the fact that most important assessable work in music classes consists of multimedia products, such as performances and improvisations which must be recorded and scored individually. Ideally, I think schools should and would greatly benefit from balancing large ensemble rehearsals with small group lessons and provide recording devices and other technology to facilitate the collection, management, and scoring of students’ individual music work.

Chapter 17 Reflections - Concerts

Of the many facets and challenges of performing concerts in the world of music education, The behavior of public audiences is one issue that is very difficult to address. While school administrators and teachers can exercise direct control over the student body, when dealing with the general public this is certainly not the case, yet it is easy to have the same high expectations for their concert behavior. People whispering, cell phones, general talking, leaving before the performance is finished, and miscellaneous noise and disruption are all part of tho typical "bad concert behavior" list. However, despite this challenge, if we, as educators, can find a way to make an impact and do something about this, the real winners will be our students who will enjoy their performance experience much more with an attentive, well-behaved audience.

Choosing Repertoire - Reflections

Composers, conductors, and educators constantly discuss the importance and significance of variety in programming and repertoire selection. Selecting literature of diverse style and origin provides something I find to be extremely important - a much-needed diversity for teacher and student alike. Though often underestimated, simple concepts like contrasting tempos, balancing different textures, and major, minor, and modal tonalities are ways in which variety in programming can easily be achieved. Other, more technical considerations when programming literature include having the required instrumentation and equipment, the available time to effectively teach the pieces efficiently, and the simple enjoyment that comes from rehearsing and performing the piece for the teacher, students, and the audience.

Further, because repertoire is also a source for long-term planning, I think it is very important that teachers at any level have a repertoire list he or she believes that all students should perform over a period of several years. This should not only focus on formal, rhythmic, harmonic, and melodic creativity, but also convey the composer’s imagination, be well-orchestrated, and most importantly, convey both emotional and expressive depth.

Finally, the process of repertoire selection should aim to give our students the opportunity to hear a range of emotion in the music they perform and rehearse. Through this process of recognizing and exploring emotional moments in music, students become aware of and reflect upon their own feelings, and can thus forge some type of connection between this and the music itself. Through this, we can ensure that our students begin to explore and understand what these emotions convey and how the composer expresses it in the music, allowing them to find a means of expressing their own personal emotions through performance and self-reflection within the ensemble.

Chapter 10 - "Score Study" Reflections

Over all, one key component of being proactive in rehearsing any instrumental ensemble is performing a detailed score study and analysis. However, most people do not realize how multi-faceted this process really is, and how it has to be in order to be most effective.

Beyond learning the technical aspects of notes and rhythms, a "macro" analysis must first me done where the conductor examines the overall architecture of the piece, such as form and movements, tonal centers and key areas, transitions, meters, and tempo changes. This also includes textures, melody and accompaniment, counterpoint, orchestrations, solos - the overall melodic, harmonic, rhythmic and formal picture of the piece.

On the next level, or 'micro' analysis, the conductor analyzes the piece in far greater detail, deconstructing the piece on every level to form a complete recording in one's head. We examine the harmony and chords and crystallize the conception of the orchestration, while trying to interpret the composer's intent. Studying music theory and learning how to perform a harmonic analysis has been extremely helpful in this process for me.

Finally, in the third or 'macro-redux' phase, we go back and make the important musical decisions that give the piece musical effect. I think it is important to realize that there is usually no right or wrong answer when interpreting a piece of music, but at the same time, it is the responsibility of the conductor to make consistent decisions that are in the best interest of the music as intended by the composer.

Additionally, regarding the comment within the text that recordings are a 'crutch' that "restrict the development of the mind's ear", I think they can be really effective if used properly. An initial listening to the piece can be highly effective in determining much of the "macro" analysis - something we often do in my form and analysis class. However, more of the minute musical details are probably best left to us before we listen to one recording multiples times and are biased by that conductor's interpretation.

First Teaching Episode - Teaching Reflections

Over all, my first middle school teaching experience with fifth grade percussion was extremely positive. While I was initially nervous to have someone as experienced as my particular instructor observing my first teaching episode with the students especially because percussion is one of my weaker areas of instrumental instruction, I was also extremely lucky to have someone who has been teaching for many years that could offer me very valuable advice and constructive criticism.

With this being said, I thought that the lesson went very well and was, overall, successful. I was complimented on keeping good pacing throughout the lesson and a continuous flow, and all of the material was covered in the ten minutes that I was allowed to have teaching. Further, the problem areas that needed to be covered, such as certain measures with difficult crossovers between hands in the mallet parts, were effectively isolated.

However, as any regular performer, I was often buried in the music just out of habit, despite the fact that I know very well how the tune to "Jingle Bells" goes. Next time, I will work to keep the students engaged by moving around the room and reading from the student's music if necessary.

As a whole, I am glad that this experience was so positive, and I am looking forward to working with the students this coming week. It was especially rewarding to have had some of the students ask if I was coming back next week because they "liked me", as well as having my instructor say that he "doesn't usually write so many positive things down" in an observation. Hopefully, they will continue to enjoy and learn from my teaching as I incorporate all of the constructive criticism I have received for next week and all other future teaching episodes.